D-Day Nick Castanzo
On the afternoon of June 4th, 1940, 338,000 soldiers were being evacuated from Dunkirk in the desperate effort to save the British Army from annililation. The German blitzkrieg then steam-rolling across France, Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a stirring, but seemingly unlikely, promise to the House of Commons. Even though Churchill dreamed of an invasion of the Continent and British strategists had been studying that possibility since October 1940, there was no hope that Britian could launch an effective offensive so long as it was fighting a defensive war alone in the West. In 1942, London Daily Mail cartoon, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was reminded of his long-standing promise to invade Europe by three "children," representing Britian's Army, Navy, and Air Force. "Daddy, WHEN are you taking us on that outing to Europe?" The Canadians had been based in England since 1939 and now, 150,000 men, strong, they formed the backbone of the island's anti-invasion defenses while the British Army fought in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The Canadian Government knew its men were frustrated and demoralized by inactivity and was pressuring the British government to send them into action at the earliest opportunity. Dieppe provided that opportunity. The plan for the Dieppe raid, which bore the code mane Operation Jubilee, envolved painfully, with many alterations, as spring gave way to summer. The final plan of attach called for landing six infatry battalions, one tank regiment, two commando formations and various support units in five seperate operations. All in all, the lplan was overambitious and hopelessly inflexible. In typescript it ran to 199 pages. It made no allowances for enemy interference in the attack, nordid it allow for individual initiative by the Canadian unit commanders-theirevery move was spelle out. Only the Commandos demanded-and got-the right to attack their assigned objectivein any manner they saw fit. Through the late hours of August 18, 1942, and the early hours of August 19, the Allied strike force steamed across the English Channel toward Dieppe. It was a balmy summer night. The sea calm, and the wind quiet. For much of the voyage the moon shone down, illuminating the low silhouettes on 237 blacked-out Royal Navy ships. At 2 p.m. on August 19, 1942, the bewildered citizens of the port city of Dieppe, France, slowly emerged from their homes and stared about them. Their city was a shambles. What the stunned people of Dieppe were seeing was the aftermath of one of the bigest and boldest commando raids of the War, in which some 7,000 British and Canadian troops had stormed ashore at dawn along a broad frone, an, after eight hours of fierce fighting, had withdrawn in bloody defeat. More than 400 dead raiders were found right after the attackers withdrew, and within the next four days the sea washed up 475 more. The Germans buried buried the dead in a mass grave and permitted the townspeople to cover the mound with hundreds of wreaths and flowers.
Works Citied
Botting, Douglas. The D-Day Invasion. Alexandra Virginia, 1978. Print.
On the afternoon of June 4th, 1940, 338,000 soldiers were being evacuated from Dunkirk in the desperate effort to save the British Army from annililation. The German blitzkrieg then steam-rolling across France, Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a stirring, but seemingly unlikely, promise to the House of Commons. Even though Churchill dreamed of an invasion of the Continent and British strategists had been studying that possibility since October 1940, there was no hope that Britian could launch an effective offensive so long as it was fighting a defensive war alone in the West. In 1942, London Daily Mail cartoon, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was reminded of his long-standing promise to invade Europe by three "children," representing Britian's Army, Navy, and Air Force. "Daddy, WHEN are you taking us on that outing to Europe?" The Canadians had been based in England since 1939 and now, 150,000 men, strong, they formed the backbone of the island's anti-invasion defenses while the British Army fought in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The Canadian Government knew its men were frustrated and demoralized by inactivity and was pressuring the British government to send them into action at the earliest opportunity. Dieppe provided that opportunity. The plan for the Dieppe raid, which bore the code mane Operation Jubilee, envolved painfully, with many alterations, as spring gave way to summer. The final plan of attach called for landing six infatry battalions, one tank regiment, two commando formations and various support units in five seperate operations. All in all, the lplan was overambitious and hopelessly inflexible. In typescript it ran to 199 pages. It made no allowances for enemy interference in the attack, nordid it allow for individual initiative by the Canadian unit commanders-theirevery move was spelle out. Only the Commandos demanded-and got-the right to attack their assigned objectivein any manner they saw fit. Through the late hours of August 18, 1942, and the early hours of August 19, the Allied strike force steamed across the English Channel toward Dieppe. It was a balmy summer night. The sea calm, and the wind quiet. For much of the voyage the moon shone down, illuminating the low silhouettes on 237 blacked-out Royal Navy ships. At 2 p.m. on August 19, 1942, the bewildered citizens of the port city of Dieppe, France, slowly emerged from their homes and stared about them. Their city was a shambles. What the stunned people of Dieppe were seeing was the aftermath of one of the bigest and boldest commando raids of the War, in which some 7,000 British and Canadian troops had stormed ashore at dawn along a broad frone, an, after eight hours of fierce fighting, had withdrawn in bloody defeat. More than 400 dead raiders were found right after the attackers withdrew, and within the next four days the sea washed up 475 more. The Germans buried buried the dead in a mass grave and permitted the townspeople to cover the mound with hundreds of wreaths and flowers.
Works Citied
Botting, Douglas. The D-Day Invasion. Alexandra Virginia, 1978. Print.